General of the French Post Office will send a complete refutation of the Duke of Richmond's errors." The statements in his Grace's letter to Lord Althorp are represented as being " far from facts;" and it is said that the French account" will show things in a very different light from the Duke's statements." Should these promises be made good, of course the public interest will require that the negotiation should be renewed, and under more favourable auspices.

It is much to be regretted that the revenue commissioners who made such searching inquiries into the other departments of the Post Office, were prevented from carrying them into the Colonial and Foreign departments. But after the demise of Lord Liverpool, who was the steady supporter of Lord Wallace in all his economical propositions, the interest of the Treasury turned against him and his reports. A person who held high office under the Duke of Wellington, and who had great Treasury influence, is considered to have been the principal cause of the inquiries of the commission being put a stop to in July 1830. The commissioners were then in the midst of their researches into the Colonial Post, and had indeed prepared a draft of a report on the subject. It is well known that the commission would not have been dissolved had the Post Office been left alone. This fact should render the representatives of the people more firmly resolved to prosecute an inquiry into that department which the commissioners did not report upon, though they did not scruple to declare the necessity of great changes in it; and we trust that should a committee of the House of Commons be appointed, the Foreign Post will receive its fair share of attention, notwithstanding the efforts which may be made to prevent it.

The actual state of the political world renders this subject one of great importance. No prudent statesman will neglect an opportunity of encouraging the kindly feeling towards this country, which appears to have again sprung up among the people of the continent. The change for the better which has taken place in the feelings of Englishmen and Frenchmen towards each other, proves how much can be accomplished in this way, even by weak instruments and desultory efforts. In the South of France, it appears that the desire to form a close and cordial connexion with this country is so strong, that it is highly probable the government will be forced to yield to it, and give up several of the most obnoxious provisions of their prohibitory tariff. The people are beginning to understand their real interests; and however narrow minded men in both countries may desire to cherish ancient feelings of animosity, it is plain

that it will be no easy matter to get up another war between England and France. This is, indeed, a gratifying reflection. But how has this mighty alteration been wrought? Simply by the intercourse of the intelligent and philanthropic of both countries; by the exchange of journals and works on political economy; by the approximation, in short, of the two nations to each other. We have the most thorough contempt for the understanding, and strong suspicions of the patriotism, of those statesmen, who would not use all the means in their power to draw closer those bonds of amity. There are two modes of promoting this union of the people of civilized countries; namely, by encouraging commercial and literary intercourse between them. The first can only be effected by abolishing prohibitory duties.* From many causes, which it is beside our present purpose to discuss, this will be done, but by slow degrees. But there is nothing very formidable in the way of establishing a friendly literary connexion. If once we afford facilities for the introduction of foreign newspapers and periodical works, and put an end to the discriminating duties on foreign correspondence, the circulation of English publications, at least of such as the rulers of the continent do not object to on the score of politics, will naturally be much increased in France, Germany, and Italy. But a beginning should be made, and it is important that it should be made without delay. It is a safe game on the part of Englishmen to do away with the restrictions of every kind which repel foreign literature from their country. They could in no possible way be injured by setting, or in some instances following, a liberal example; but it is highly probable that they would reap, from an altered system, solid literary, commercial, and political advantages.

* We

now,

may as well avail ourselves of this opportunity to express our surprise that in this twentieth year of peace, the heavy and oppressive duty on the importation of foreign books should be still maintained on the war footing. The case was fully stated in an article in the XVIIth No. of this journal, published in January, 1832, and we have nothing new to add to that statement. It really seems inexplicable how the Board of Trade, when it swept off in that year from the customs-tariff so great a number of articles, producing very small returns, should have allowed this to remain. Ever since the discriminating duty was made between old and new books in 1825, (the former paying. only one-fifth of the latter, and which discrimination, by the way, never could have been intended to be permanent,) the receipts from both descriptions have never exceeded 10,000l. a year. Surely, this is a sum much too paltry in amount to stand in the way of the application of a general principle, while the maintenance of the duty perpetuates the odium on the government of discouraging the literary communications of the continent with this country (without a single British interest being benefited by it), and exposes it to the reproach of backwardness in following the liberal example set by the governments of France and other countries, in which the duties on foreign books are little more than nominal. Let us hope, now that Lord Althorp's fears as to not having wherewithal to pay the public creditor his interest are entirely dissipated, that the fisc can afford to abolish altogether this solitary remnant of the illiberal system of former days.

ART. IX.-1. Histoire de la Legislation, par M. le Marquis de Pastoret. 9 tom. 8vo. Paris, 1817-27.

2. Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Judicial Affairs of the East India Company; and an Appendix. 3 vols. folio. London. 1832. THE history of the different systems of law by which society was regulated in the vast provinces of the Indian peninsula, from the remotest times to the period when they finally fell under the British sway, and of the important changes which English legislation has since produced in the condition of the natives of India, is a theme pregnant with instruction to the philosopher, the legislator and the statesman. The latter part of the subject, however, possesses at the present moment so much interest, and must besides so soon form an important topic of public and senatorial discussion, that we are induced to think we shall be doing an acceptable service to our readers, by putting them in possession of the details of the judicial system now established over the immense extent of our Eastern empire. For this purpose the volumes of Parliamentary documents placed at the head of this article, (which from their bulk and general inaccessibility are all but sealed to the great mass of readers,) form an authority which renders recourse to foreign aid on the present occasion wholly superfluous. They are part of the voluminous Reports of the East India Committee, published by order of the House of Commons in 1832, and contain the most ample information on all matters connected with the past and present state of the judicial system of India, the working of that system, and the numerous material changes which have been suggested for the purpose of making it still more efficient. We have endeavoured in the following pages to exhibit a brief and intelligible abstract of this great mass of information, together with some notice of such of the proposed alterations as appear most worthy of adoption, and most conducive to the object of all laws -the security of civil rights, and the suppression of crime.

In order to form a just opinion of the merits of this system, and of the labours of those who have brought it to its present state of efficiency, we must revert to the circumstances which attended its first establishment. For some years after the East India Company first became possessed of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar and Orissa, the administration of justice continued on much the same footing as previous to that event. The zemindar was the supreme judge in most criminal and civil cases; in the former, generally inflicting fines for his own benefit; in the latter, receiving, as a compensation for the trouble of deciding, 25 per cent. on the thing litigated. He recorded none of his proceedings, and the sole

check on his injustice was in the necessity of reporting to a superior authority all cases of capital punishment, before the sentence was carried into execution. The injustice and corruption consequent on such a system soon rendered its impolicy apparent. Two courts were appointed to each district, at the head of each of which was placed the English collector for the district, and he was assisted in his duties as judge by the native officers attached to each court. This union of fiscal and judicial offices in the same person was not found to succeed. Without reference to the possible want of the twofold knowledge required from the same individual, it was found that the due performance of his judicial functions was incompatible with the labours of the collectorship: the time devoted to the former was necessarily taken from that of the latter, and both departments suffered. This, however, with some deviation, continued in force till 1793, when the then governorgeneral, Lord Cornwallis, introduced an entirely new system, which, though materially modified in all parts of India, is the groundwork of that which now exists. All previous systems (for others had existed besides those mentioned above) had been almost wholly carried on by natives; and even in that which superseded them, though the collector presided over both the civil and the criminal courts, his superintendence was, from the causes we have mentioned, often merely nominal. Lord Cornwallis's system was formed on the principle, that as methods depending almost entirely on native agency had failed, that agency should therefore be rejected, and the exclusive employment of Europeans resorted to. This supposition was from the beginning the rock on which the system was wrecked. only the most unimportant and trivial cases were native judges allowed jurisdiction. The great body both of civil and criminal trials went before the English judge. In one respect, indeed, it was avowedly only temporary. It was admitted that the districts over which each court presided were too large, both in respect to population and extent of country. In the greater number, from these causes, it was out of the power even of the most efficient judge to prevent arrears from accumulating. In consequence, it was declared that whenever the public finances should admit of it, these districts should be diminished in extent, and a greater number of European courts established. But in no state of prosperity that the finances of India have yet attained, or are likely to attain, has there appeared a prospect of their bearing such an increase of European judges as would be able to administer justice efficiently without native assistance. We have said that this system is the foundation of the existing

one.

In

The consideration, therefore, of its original form, and the

changes it has undergone, will by their operation be a guide in our views of future improvement. Three gradations of courts were constituted. The country was divided into large districts called zillahs, and cities containing a given population were considered equal to a zillah. In each of these a zillah court was established, consisting of a judge, register and assistant, with the necessary native officers. The zillah court had cognizance of all suits below a certain amount that arose within its district. The register was empowered to try such suits, to a small amount (200 rupees), as the judge thought proper to refer to him. Those generally selected for this purpose were suits which did not appear to embrace any points of peculiar difficulty. Those which he retained, or were above the register's powers, the judge himself decided. When arrears accumulated to a great extent, another register or assistant was often appointed, who thus relieved the zillah judge of a still greater portion of the inferior suits. The next superior court was the provincial court, consisting of four judges, with native law officers. Its jurisdiction extended over a province, composed of several zillahs, and before it came all causes that arose within the province for a higher amount than the zillah court was empowered to try. The highest court in civil matters was the Sudder Dewanny Adawlut, at first composed of the governor and council. It tried causes for a very large amount, corresponded with the inferior courts, received their reports, and promulgated any additional regulations enacted by the government. Appeals were then regulated by much the same rules as at the present day. A primary appeal was allowed of right to the court immediately above that whose decree it was sought to reverse. A second or special appeal was admitted from the decision of this court to the highest, only on proof that the proceedings were informal, or the decision at variance with the law.

The criminal law was also administered by the same courts. The zillah judges performed the duties of magistrates in minor criminal offences. The judges of the provincial court went the circuit, and held half-yearly sessions and gaol-deliveries at each station within their province. The highest criminal court, composed of the same persons as in civil matters, but called the Sudder Nizamut, or Foujdarry Adawlut, revised all trials involving capital punishment, and its confirmation of the sentence was necessary before it could be carried into execution. It had also the power, in cases not already provided for, of inflicting any punishment short of death.

This system, though often characterized as exclusively European, cannot be said entirely to have disused native agency, for though by far the greater number of causes came before English